Beyond This Dark House, by Guy Gavriel Kay
Beyond This Dark House
by Guy Gavriel Kay
106 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Poetry/Literary/Fantasy
I ordered this book from indigo.ca (paying twice the discounted cover price for international shipping, too) in September, and posted my first poem excerpt in November. It's now March, but I've finally gotten around to posting everything I wanted to excerpt and writing a review.
However--how does one review a book of poetry, exactly? Especially one by my favoritest* author ever? Although less than half of the poems are fantastical, I love Kay's use of words. I've always admired the poetic, resonant quality of his prose, and it translates beautifully to (or rather, from) his poetry. Of the fantasy-related poems in this short collection, my favorites were " Avalon," " Guinevere at Almesbury" (which has an especially memorable first stanza), " At the Death of Pan," " Shalott," and " The Guardians." Many of his personal pieces are equally poignant, though: " Ransacked," " Wine," " Following," " And Diving," and of course the title poem " Beyond This Dark House." The collection is divided into five unnamed sections, but I didn't really understand the deeper meaning of that.
So. If you like beautiful, concise free verse, you should like this. Moreso if you like beautiful, concise, fantastical free verse.
*Yes, I know favoritest is not a real word. This is how much I love GGK.
by Guy Gavriel Kay
106 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Poetry/Literary/Fantasy
I ordered this book from indigo.ca (paying twice the discounted cover price for international shipping, too) in September, and posted my first poem excerpt in November. It's now March, but I've finally gotten around to posting everything I wanted to excerpt and writing a review.
However--how does one review a book of poetry, exactly? Especially one by my favoritest* author ever? Although less than half of the poems are fantastical, I love Kay's use of words. I've always admired the poetic, resonant quality of his prose, and it translates beautifully to (or rather, from) his poetry. Of the fantasy-related poems in this short collection, my favorites were " Avalon," " Guinevere at Almesbury" (which has an especially memorable first stanza), " At the Death of Pan," " Shalott," and " The Guardians." Many of his personal pieces are equally poignant, though: " Ransacked," " Wine," " Following," " And Diving," and of course the title poem " Beyond This Dark House." The collection is divided into five unnamed sections, but I didn't really understand the deeper meaning of that.
So. If you like beautiful, concise free verse, you should like this. Moreso if you like beautiful, concise, fantastical free verse.
*Yes, I know favoritest is not a real word. This is how much I love GGK.